(467) Osayo legend 2

Osayo legend

Once upon a time, or should I say more precisely it was about 400 years ago. There were a couple of lovers here in Matsuyama. In those days, samurai class ruled over other three classes. One is farming
peasants, another is artisans and merchants. In this story I’m going to tell, the couple maybe belonged to farming peasants’ class, I imagine.

The young woman’s name was Osayo and her fiancé was Yoshimatsu. One night the couple went to Unshoji-temple’s summer festival. A big bon-dance was going to be held in that year. That year’s festival was very special. The temple was located at the foot of Katsuyama-hill but the lord of Matsuyama allowed to use the top of the hill for the festival
because in that summer the construction of the castle on the hill just started. The lord announced there would be a big summer dance festival. So the townsfolk were all encouraged to join in the celebration.

On the night, a good many people, the old and the young, men and women gathered there in droves. Especially young men were overjoyed with this dance festival. Some loved dancing with maidens. Some tried
making a pass at them.

Osayo was a young and beautiful maiden. She was so attractive that she stood out from others. So her fiancé, Yoshiatsu had to keep an eye on her all the time. After joyful dancing, they took a rest for a while. She said she wanted to see some of food vendors. There were various stalls around the dace site. She run to one of the stalls. The dance site was so crowded with the townsfolk. Osayo got separated from him for a moment. And the next moment, Yoshimatsu lost sight of her. He didn’t get so upset in the beginning. But she was missing after all. He looked for her around the vendor. He completely lost all trace of her.

Once stepped out of the festival site, there was only pitch darkness of castle hill. He gradually got uneasy and finally he began to shout her name. The strange thing was that nobody saw her ever after. She
disappeared very mysteriously. He looked desperately for her all around in the mountain, through the night, but ended in vain.

After a little while, they rumored that Osayo was taken away to be sacrificed at the construction site of the castle.

What do you think of this story? I think it was true. I believe this story. I have two reasons.

One is that the ground of the top hill was not firm so the chief carpenter of the castle construction insisted that human sacrifice, young maiden, was needed for laying the firm foundation.

Another reason is that the lord searched for a suitable maiden but nobody volunteered to be a human sacrifice because the townsfolk were horrified to be buried alive under the foundation.

The top of the hill was originally twin peaks. The area in between was filled to make the flat ground. This is true, you can see the deep well on the top of hill even now. It’s a 44 m deep well. It’s impossible to dig this deep in samurai’s era. The fact is, before the construction, there was a spring at the bottom of ravine. When the land was filled in, it became today’s 44 m-deep well. So laying foundation for the castle was the most important work.

So the lord planed the big summer dance festival on the top of
the hill to find a suitable maiden.

What a scary story!

Osayo was offered as human sacrifice to pray to the deity for safe construction. But several bad things continued after her death, I think.

Yes, finally the magnificent castle main tower was built, it had five roofs and stories. It took 25 years to complete the castle construction. But just before its completion the lord was ordered to transfer to the northern Japan. He was unlucky, after all. Because he had to leave his adorable castle behind.

The second lord came to Matsuyama, but he died 7 years later without leaving any heir. He became another unhappy lord, I think.

The third load rebuilt the main tower, but it became 3 story castle. The main tower became smaller, for unknown reasons. And one more thing, about 180 years later from Osayo’s death the main tower was struck by lightning and burned down. What would Osayo feel about these things occurred around Matsuyama Castle? Is she still angry?

Reconstruction of present structure was completed in 1854. Now
Matsuyama castle has become one of the most popular sightseeing spots in Matsuyama city. Osayo-san, thank you very much for the price you paid. Now many people love Matsuyama castle.

*

(458) Teaching is learning

Teaching is learning.

I learned again several new things about kanji (Chinese character). I learned it’s important and joyful to think of reasons why we follow some rules, such as stroke order of kanji.
I have helped a Kenyan elementary student do his homework for about two years.
  One day, when I helped him with kanji homework I don’t know why, but I wrote 旅wrongly. My student complained about my wrong kanji, because he had to correct his kanji as extra homework. He asked me do the same thing, so I practiced to write 旅 on whole one page of my notebook.

  I also noticed several wrong writing in my kanji, in stroke order and how to end each stroke while helping him with home work. He always neglects kanji stroke order. I tried to correct his way but he didn’t follow my instruction. First I thought kanji is foreign language for him, so he didn’t want to keep its rule of kanji stroke order. But this was wrong he writes zero and O differently from me. He started at the bottom point of O and makes a circle clockwise. He seemed to choose his best way to write alphabet and kanji by himself. He believes his way is best. His best way is write things most quickly and lest energy consuming. His main concern is that finishing his home work as
soon as possible and playing with his friends.
  So I think of the merits of learning correct stroke-order of kanji.
･ You can write kanji characters physically
easily in the correct stroke-order for right-handed people.
･ You can write beautiful kanji characters.
A book named “Reading and writing CHINESE” also says that ‘Following the stroke-order diagrams presented in this book in order to acquire the correct habits early, and remember to keep you characters uniform in size.’ This is another merit of correct stroke-order. From this book let me show you the rules to explain the methods of stroke-order in general. These are the same as the rules kanji stroke-order in Japan.

1. Top to bottom: 言

2. Left to right: 他

3. Upper left corner to lower right corner:矢


4. Outside to inside: 国

5. When two or more strokes cross, horizontal strokes before perpendicular strokes: 十

6. Slanting stroke to the left before slanting stroke to the right: 人

7. Center stroke before symmetrical wings: 小

  Japanese kanji dictionary for elementary students explain how we can right 十 with the correct
stroke-order. Beautiful 十 keeps its horizontal stroke balance in length. We can cross the horizontal stroke at the proper point with the perpendicular stroke. I like this explanation very much.
  Although Chinese people and also Japanese people occasionally disagree among themselves about minor details, the traditional stroke-order has been developed and perfected through centuries of
experience. Learning the method is very meaningful and practical. Handwriting message of beautiful kanji surely make better communication with others.
*

(450) Listening makes perfect

Listening makes perfect

  When you want to learn a foreign language, baby’s way is the best. Of course none of us remember how we learned our mother tongues, but nobody failed this. It doesn’t matter at all whether you are a lazy baby, shy baby or whatever. You surely learned your mother tongue naturally. This is why I say that baby’s way is the best to learn a foreign language.

  What is the baby’s way to learn languages? Most mothers know the baby’s way. Baby does listen to what parents talk to. And baby tries to reply something to them to communicate. It’s very simple. There is no text book, no grammar book and of course no spelling book. First baby picks up sounds of the language and try to reply something. Later baby will find the meaning of the sound by communicating with mother and father.

Here are simple rules.
Rule 1: First, pick up sounds of the language.
Rule 2: Then find meaning of the sounds.
We adults can follow this process when we learn foreign languages. But, as you know, for adults it’s very hard to pick up foreign sentences without their meaning. On the contrary for small children it’s much easier to do it. Unfortunately we forgot how we did it when we were small. So grown up students try to look for some special techniques to memorize them.

  What comes to my mind first is SORAMIMI. It is one of techniques to memorize easily foreign language sentences or words. Soramimi here, is a funny coincidence of sounds between two different languages. Once you found a funny one, you never forget that sentence forever. Let me show you two funny examples. The first one, Japanese sentence ITADAKIMAS meaning “let’s eat”. To English speaking people, this might sound like “Eat a duck and a mouse.”  And the second example is “What time is it now?” To Japanese, this English sentence can be heard like “Hotta imo ijiruna!” This Japanese means “Don’t touch the sweet potato I dug out.” But the problem is that it takes time to find funny Soramimi sounds.

  The next technique is musical score. I recently learned rap music can be written in musical score.

  This Rap music is performed in a song called Joyful joyful. This hymn was sung in a 1993 American movie of Sister Act 2, starring Whoopi Goldberg. 

Musical score can be a tool to perform rap music. I also remember that a certain English teacher once suggested me learn English by rap. I agree to this idea because each language surely has its own rhythm. Mimicking the rhythm is very important for learning languages. I really envy people who can read musical score and do rap with it.

  There is a more surprising story about musical score. One of my acquaintances wrote an essay about Caizares who is a famous Spanish guitarist. I happened to read it.
Caizares delivered a perfect speech in Japanese at his wedding ceremony. His wife is Japanese. He made a musical score of his Japanese speech and performed it perfectly. Wow, what an idea! Musical score of languages would be the most powerful tool to memorize sentences? Should we start learning how to write and read musical scores of languages to become a genius like Caizares? 
 
  No, I don’t think so. I’d like to memorize the sentences by ear. Musicalscores didn’t exist in the beginning of music history. Let’s take Gospel music for an example. Originally gospel music was taught without musical scores. A leader is singing a phrase and the others in the group repeating it straight after. Why not get back to the basic way. Try to remember baby’s way by just listening to the language over and over again. I believe in listening makes perfect. This is my conclusion.
*

 

(439) Black nightshade

(439) Black nightshade

Pic. weed in his flower pot

Every weed has its name. I’d like to talk about how to know the name of weeds.　The other day a Kenyan mother, my friend, quickly searched for the name of a weed in her son’s flower pot by her smart phone. I was impressed by her searching speed and curiosity. A few weeks later I saw a
peculiar weed and took a picture of this plant. The picture’s property says it was on Sep. 19. I tried to find its name on the Internet like my Kenyan friend. I wanted to know how soon I could get to the exact picture.
Pic. unknown weed
I typed two key words into a search engine, Google. One is Budo, “grape”, because its fruit looked like a tiny grape. Another is Yama “wild”, because I thought it looked like a weed growing in the field. I instantly found several exactly the same kind of plants as this weed among pictures of Yama-budo (Crimson Glory Vine).
Pic. Yama-budo?

This was unexpected result to me. I thought it would take me much more time to reach the picture of this plant. Google is really great. But there remained a little problem. Someone said its name was “Yamabudo” but others said no.
Pic. Yama-budo vine 

Which is correct? On the next day, finally I reached its right name, Youshu-Yama-gobo. Its binominal name is Phytolacca americana. It has several names in English, such as American pokeweed, ink-berry and pokeberry. I got confident about searching of wild plant’s name by this result.

Pic. Youshu-yama-gobo

 Next I’d like to show you the first weed, which had grown in a student’s flower pot of housenka (Jewelweed or touch-me-not).
Pic. housenka

He told me that his Housenka was different from his friends’. He proudly showed me his housenka. He had brought back home from school during summer vacation. I was really astonished at his housenka. He was wrong. His housenka was just a weed, which already had its berries.
Pic. His housenka

His mother and I started to talk about this plant. I told that its leaves had purple lines on them. I thought its leaves were similar to egg plants’. She told that its berries reminded her of African berries. She began to search for the name of this weed. She showed me pictures of similar berries by smart phone several times. Then she reached the goal. It was a black nightshade. I was very
surprised at her curiosity to the weed. She kindly found its Japanese translation for me.
Pic. Inu-hoozuki

Inu-hoozuki is its Japanese name. Its means useless Hoozuki (Chinese lantern plant).    Inu-hoozuki has two opposite flower languages. One is a liar, the other is truth. Hoozuki is not toxic but
inu-hoozuki is toxic. In this sense inu-hoozuki is a liar. Hoozuki’s fruits look big and beautiful but its inside is empty.
Pic. Hoozuki

Real fruit is a tiny seed covered with skin. So Chinese lantern plant’s flower language is deception. Inu-hoozuki fruit doesn’t have colorful covering. Additionally, though it is considered a toxic weed, plant parts are used as a traditional medicine. In this sense black nightshade deserve to mean truth in the language of flower.
*

(437) Highlights of Trip to LEX America

437)　Highlights of Trip to LEX America

注：英語と一部、韓国語で旅行報告をしました。そのときの原稿です。韓国語の下の漢字まじりの平仮名は、丸暗記用のアンチョコです。

I’d like to talk about my trip to Boston.
(Today, I’d like to talk about my Boston trip.)
오늘은 나의 보스턴 여행에 대해 이야기하고 싶습니다.
おヌルン　萎（な）え　ボストン　世変（よへん）ぎ　出屁（でへ）　E山羊（いやぎ）はご　詩（し）ぷ住（すむ）にだ。

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LEX 미국으로 여행의 하이라이트
歴（れき）す　見具（みぐ）ぐろ　世変化（よへんげ）　ハイライトゥ

1（일）. 나는 이메일로 물었다.
１いる．ナぬん　E-メールる　ぶろ（風呂）った

2（이）. 브라키오사우루스　공룡　오헤어　공항에있다.
２いー．ブラ気宇サウルス　子（こ）ん魚（ぎょ）ん　尾（お）へ世（よ）　湖畔（こはん）げいった

3（삼）. 나는 거의 Natic 센터에서 기차를 놓쳤다.
３さむ．ナぬん　古碑（こひ）　ネイテック　遷都（せんと）　壊疽（えそ）　汽（き）ちゃる　路（ろ）ちゃった

4（사）. 렉스 미국 캠브리지 언어 클럽에서 늦게( 도착했다.
４さー．歴（れき）す　見具（みぐ）く　ケンブリッジ　斧（おの）　クラブ壊疽（えそ）　抜（ぬ）け　と茶（ちゃ）けった

5（오）. 여자는 미국 수화로 자신을 소개했다.
５おー．よじゃぬん　見具（みぐ）く　座（すわ）ろ　刺（さ）しぬん　削（そ）げ選（え）った。

6（육）. 마지막으로 다시는 엘리자베스를 만나 내 잊어 버린 컴퓨터 충전기를 얻을 수 있습니다.
６よー．まじマグロ　足（た）しぬん　エリザベスる　万名（まんな）で　異常慕倫（いじょぽりん）　コンピューター　ちゅんジョンギル　尾（お）でぃす　椅（い）っ子無二（すむに）だ

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1. Making plan of trip by exchanging　e-mails. (I asked by e-mail.)

 1. 나는 이메일로 물었다.

2. Brachiosaurus Dinosaur skeleton model at　O’Hare Airport
(Brachiosaurus Dinosaur is at O’Hare Airport.)
 2. 브라키오사우루스 공룡 오 헤어 공항에있다.

3. Which side is the inbound station of　Natic center?
(I almost missed the train at Natic center.)
 3. 나는 거의 Natic 센터에서 기차를 놓쳤다.

4. I arrived late at LEX America Cambridge language　club.
 4. 렉스 미국 캠브리지 언어 클럽에서 늦게 도착했다.

5. A girl introduced herself in American　Sign Language.
 5. 여자는 미국 수화로 자신을 소개했다.                               

6. Finally I could meet again Elizabeth and　get my forgotten computer charger.
 6. 마지막으로 다시는 엘리자베스를 만나 내 잊어 버린 컴퓨터 충전기를 얻을 수 있습니다.

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April 21^st I sent an e-mail to　LEX America,

 Now I’m planning a trip to Boston in summer.If possible, I’d like to join Cambridge LANGUAGE club activity at　that time.Do you close the club activity during summer vacation?

April 22^nd I got a reply from Kate　of LEX America. 

It's great to hear that you are planning to visit Boston this　summer.　As of now１）, we don't have any plans to cancel clubs during the　summer.
1) 今現在 

Jun. 14, I let Kate know which club I’ll　attend.

I’d like to visit Thursday club on July 9 with my daughter, Yuki.　We’ll arrive at Porter of Red Line at 15:48.　Could somebody kindly pick us up at the station?

Jun. 16, I got an e-mail from Kate

Unfortunately, I will be on vacation during your visit and there　won't be anyone available to pick you up. If you are okay to walk, the office　is about a 15-20 minute walk from Porter Square.　I will let Yoko and Elizabeth know to expect you on the 9^th.

I left Narita airport on the 8^th. I transferred planes at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. I saw a big dinosaur bones there. I was lucky to see it, but I didn’t take a picture of it. I learned of this　dinosaur on the Internet when I returned to Japan.

One of the largest mounted dinosaurs in the world is not found in a museum but right here at O'Hare. The four-story high, 72-foot-long Brachiosaurus skeleton model is on loan from Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. You can't miss the Brachiosaurus dinosaur located on the upper level of Terminal 1 in Concourse B.

ウエブより借用
Brachiosaurus Dinosaur is displayed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, Terminal 1 located just after the security check. Our Brachiosaurus is one of the largest mounted dinosaurs in the world. The four-story high, 72-foot long skeleton model is on loan from the Chicago Field Museum.

I visited Mathworks at Natic in the morning. Then I moved to LEX America in the afternoon. I almost missed the inbound train to South Station. I was on the wrong side of rails. The man waiting at the other side let us know the train wouldn’t come into our side. We hurried to move to the other side. We got on the train from the ground not from platform.

At South Station we changed trains. I had to buy a ticket from the machine but I couldn’t operate it. So I asked the officer how to do it. The officer was taking care of other woman for the ticket
so we had to wait for a while. We spent more a few minutes than we expected at this station so we were about 15 minutes late to arrive LEX America Cambridge language club.

They were playing a game of Seven Steps. We joined them and dance to Jellicoe. One of members did self introduction in ASL. I became happy because I am also learning Japanese sign language. I introduce myself in Japanese sign language and English.

Fortunately I met Yoko on the way to Porter Square. She asked if I had forgotten my charger in the office. She kindly　called Elizabeth and let me know at nearby park Elizabeth would drive to and I can get my charger from her. But I couldn’t meet her, so I walked back to the office. Finally I could meet again Elizabeth. She also drove back to the office. When I came back to my home, I knew her e-mail had reached at that time.

It said as follows,
Subject: Re: wasuremono!

I will leave it in a bag on the door of our office in case you can come back for it tonight.  if the front door to the building is locked you can come in through the Italian restaurant,　Gran Gusto.  Tomorrow I might be in the office or working from home but you'll be able to get it even if I'm not here.

Elizabeth 

*

(436) The 23rd WSJ

(436) The 23^rd WSJ

1. Do you know what’s WSJ?
These letters stand for the World Scout Jamboree. The 23^rd World Scout Jamboree was hosted in Japan from Tuesday, 28^th July to Saturday, 8^th August 2015. Its participants are male and female Scouts aged 14 to 17 years old.

2. Where was the Jamboree site?
The 23^rd World Scout Jamboree was held in Kirara-hama, Yamaguchi, Japan.Kirara-hama is a reclaimed land in Yamaguchi City, which s located in the western part of Honsu, extending about 1km from north to south and 3 km from east to west (286 ha), and is equipped with developed facilities and parks. Kirara-hama was the site for Japan Expo Yamaguchi in 2001.

3. What did the scouts do there?
About 34 thousand scouts gathered from 155 countries all over the world actively discuss and think about global issues such as peace and international understanding. Participants developed physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and spiritually through large-scale camping experience in an international environment supported by adults.

4. How many people in Ehime joined the Jamboree?
60 scouts and 34 adult leaders participated the Jamboree.

5. What did I do for the Jamboree?
Home hospitality was one of the programs of the Jamboree. In Ehime a home hospitality program was offered after the Jamboree. Thirty scouts for the UK and 199 scouts from Australia were going to visit cities in Ehime prefecture. I helped Matsuyama’s staffs to communicate to Australian staffs when 7 buses carried those scouts. On the last day of the Jamboree I saw a closing ceremony.

6. Home hospitality
Scouts from abroad stayed with Scout families for 2-3 day. Through this home hospitality program scouts from overseas deepened their understanding of Japanese culture, customs and way of
life, and cultivated mutual understanding.

7. Useful Phrases to start conversation
Hello. What’s your name? Where are you from? Thank you.

*

(434) Visiting Toastmasters at MathWorks

Visiting Toastmasters at MathWork

I visited Toastmasters@MathWorks in Massachusetts on July 9. I’d like to talk about my trip and the meeting of MathWorks. Tonight I prepared five points to talk.

1. Traveling from Narita to MathWorks by itself was a big challenge for me.
2. MathWorks company’s cafeteria has meals for vegetarians
3. Evaluation portion of the meeting was larger than Matsuyama toastmasters.
4. Gramarian/Wordmaster picked up good expressions from the speeches in its report.
5. Taking pictures of you and the people you met is the most precious thing in you happy trip.

 One day in April I got a phone call from my daughter. She asked me to go with her to Boston in summer. Meeting her friend in Boston was her main event in this trip. On the contrary I didn’t have any friends and anything interested there. But I became very happy because it was the first time for her to invite me to her trip. She always travels abroad with her friends. I thought this trip with her would be the first and last one in my life. And besides, I had just joined Matsuyama toastmasters club in April. I heard its sister club, toastmasters at MathWorks is somewhere in Massachusetts. And Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts. What a coincidence! So I decided to challenge to visit Toastmasters at MathWorks.

 Reaching MathWorks was my main concern. I searched for the location of MathWorks by Google map. I was surprised that Google map showed me its location and also how to get there with time schedule of the train. I decided to visit there on Thursday July 9. And I mailed to Pradeep of
MathWorks about our arriving time at Natick Center station. I could confirm he would pick us up and drop us back at the station.

 We arrived in Boston July 8 from Narita Japan. On the next morning we walked to the Back Bay station from our hotel. I sent an e-mail to Pradeep about our visit from the station. We got tickets or more precisely, plastic cards called Charlie Cards. Then we got on the train at Back Bay station.
 
I got a little nervous on the train. Because I didn’t know who check our tickets. There was not a wicket to check our tickets at the station. The train ran. I was relieved when I saw conductors on the train. We got off at Natick Center station without trouble.

We met Pradeep soon, and he took us to MathWorks. MathWorks is a name of company. I didn’t know of it before visiting the club. The weather was very good. He took us to the cafeteria. He kindly treated us lunches. He was a president of the club and an Indian. Then another big man
appeared. He was Allen, vice president. He ate a pack of salmon sushi. He said “today’s sushi is better than the other day’s.” A staff served us what we wanted in paper lunch boxes. There were four kinds of foods. I wanted to try all of them, but he said no. Meals are served in two ways, for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. I have to select one. This company employed people world-wide. There were many people working from various countries. Toastmasters’ meeting started at noon so we walked to a comfortable meeting room in another building.

 Here is a meeting agenda on July 9, 2015. The meeting was held in lunch break. I and my daughter brought unfinished lunch boxes with us. There were about 20 attendees in the room. I introduced myself in the beginning of the meeting. I enjoyed listening to two speeches and table topics. That day’s theme was summer outing. She was requested to say a word, but my daughter didn’t speak English so I did for her. I almost forgot what I talked to them, but I talked much. The meeting was run as schedule.  There seemed be more evaluation portion than Matsuyama. Now I can find General evaluator besides evaluators in this Toastmasters’ agenda. Gramarian/Wordmaster commented about good expressions in the speeches. This was new to me.

I didn’t take any pictures at MathWorks. Nobody said photograph is prohibited there, but I couldn’t. My daughter took two pictures of outside of MathWorks’ building, and at Natick Center station
one picture of I and Pradeep. He kindly drove us to the station.

 We had an enough time to the next train, so we walked south along the road. We found a small park. We finished our lunch boxes on the green grass. There were mothers and children playing there. Some children were eating ice cream. She wanted to eat an ice cream. She bought an ice
cream at the ice cream shop. I also ate an ice cream on a cone but I got more interested in an unfamiliar tree in the park. It had a name plate saying Dawn Redwood.

There was a beautiful church beside the park. And we moved to the station.

At the station I found a small stone monument. It said “Freedom is not free.”

 I can know many things of faraway places by Google map, and confirm its details by street view. The name of the church is first congregational church. The small park is Natick Center Historic District. I can see the same scenery of the place I visited by street view of Google map. So pictures of us and the people we met are the most precious thing.
*

(432) Can edible insect foods save hunger in the world?

Can edible insect foods save hunger in the world?

Do you know of bamboo caterpillars snack1) in Thailand? The ready-to-eat (cooked) bamboo caterpillars are packed in plastic boxes. The bamboo caterpillars are deep-fried beforehand. Bamboo caterpillar is one of edible insect foods. Insect foods are called future foods, but haven’t become world major food yet. So nobody believes insect foods will save starving millions in the world as substitute for wheat or rice.

But wait a minute, is it true? I browsed through a book named ‘Feeding the ten billion / Plants and population growth’ 2) published in 1998. I found an expression in the book, like ‘Concerning food, the biggest error has been to see hunger as problem of total production.’ And another one is ‘ The first cause of hunger and malnutrition is poverty.’ And the first cause of poverty is lack of work. Here, I want to say that insect foods might solve the problem of poverty. Insect foods business might advance agricultural development in regions where poverty is mostly rural. This business might give work to the poor people.

But the poor people can’t get good jobs so easily. In Japan there is a saying, ‘We cannot do any good job on an empty stomach’. And Mahatma Gandhi once stated “To the poor man God dare not appear except in the form of bread and the promise of work.” And one more, is the ability to work requires one to be sufficiently fed, healthy and educated to perform adequately. While I was searching for the real causes of hunger, I went around and back to lack of food. There is a vicious circle here;

Hunger (Lack of food) à Poverty à Lack of work à Lack of food and education

Looking for cheep nutritious insect foods might cut this circle. If they found the foods, the poor people can eat them, and also start the business with the insect foods. Insect foods seem to have possibility to save hunger in the world.

This Bamboo caterpillars cup made me think of several things. There are several ultimate questions to solve. Why is the history of hunger embedded in the history of plenty? Why cannot we educate people to do an even distribution of food with less waste? How many people can the earth support? We need real cooperation of all human beings to solve foods problems. World population keeps on increasing every minute. Don’t forget this. 

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1) Bamboo CATERPILLAR
www.urai-insectfoods.com/ Insect foods, Future food by Mea U-Rai

2)Feeding the ten billion / Plants and population growth 
ⓒL.T. Evans 1998, First published 1998,
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambriudge
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(430) Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace 

♪Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see.♪

I felt good, very good with a beautiful chorus surrounding me. I was on the stage with other members of the Gospel group last March. Except me most of other members were experienced singers of this song. We sang it a cappella 1). This was the first time for me to sing it so I needed some practice before the performance. I taught myself the song by singing to the video of the same tune on the Internet. At that time I knew there were many different arrangements of the song. The biggest difference for me was its beat. I learned to sing it in quadruple measure 2), but most of songs I found in YouTube were sung in triple measure. It took some time for me to find the same tune video.

We sang only the first verse on the stage. First I could not get its meaning but while I repeated it and tried to memorize it I came to get its meaning. Now I want to know the whole verses and learn to sing the song in triple measure version. I know there is  Amazing grace in my wife’s home karaoke machine. I shall start practicing it with this karaoke.

I just wondered who composed this song. I downloaded several music scores of this song. One said it was an American folk song, another said a British folk song. Anyway the composer is unknown. I
continued to search for its information. It was not so difficult to get more information about this. According to Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779, with words written by the English poet and clergyman 3) John Newton (1725–1807). It has been associated4) with more than 20 melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today.  

A traditional song named "New Britain" was itself an amalgamation 5) of two melodies ("Gallaher" and "St. Mary").  As neither tune is attributed 6) and both show elements of oral transmission, scholars can only speculate that they are possibly of British origin. In this sense, this song is a British folk song.

An 1847 publication of Southern Harmony, showing the title "New Britain" and shape note music.　(Shape notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational 7) and community singing.)

I can see the music score of “New Britain” published in 1847. It seemed to be triple measure.  I’d like to stop here about Wikipedia’s information. 

My research is not enough, but I learned there are very many things to read and to know about Amazing grace. And, now I’m satisfied only to know it is a very beautiful song to sing and it has a very long history.

Thanks for listening.

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1) sing songs a cappella[ὰːkəpélə] / アカペラで歌う
2) in quadruple[kwɑdrúːpl] measure / 四拍子で
3) Clergyman [klˈɚːdʒimən] /牧師
4) associate / (transitive) To connect or join together; combine.
5) amalgamation [əm`ælgəméɪʃən] / 融合.
6) attributed [ətrɪ́bjətəd] / ascribed
7) congregational [kὰŋgrɪgéɪʃ(ə)nəl] / 会衆派教会制の.
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From Wikipedia
"Amazing Grace", with the words written by Newton and joined with "New Britain", the melody most currently associated with it, appeared for the first time in Walker's shape note tunebook Southern Harmony in 1847.William Walker, the composer who first joined John Newton's verses to "New Britain", to create the song that has become "Amazing Grace"A traditional song named "New Britain", was itself an amalgamation of two melodies ("Gallaher" and "St. Mary").  As neither tune is
attributed and both show elements of oral transmission, scholars can only speculate that they are possibly of British origin.
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(378) Being fascinated is wonderful.

 Being fascinated is wonderful.

She is 16 years old. Talking about her stay in Tokyo last week, she seemed so excited. Young people who will go abroad this year got together and exchanged information, and learned how to get along in foreign countries from the people who had experienced. She became the MC of the meeting and presented her views in front of them. She got confidence to do anything after that seminar.

 We, who love to learn multi-language and foreign cultures, have a meeting once a week at least. Tonight’s guests were two Asians, one is from Korea, the other is from Singapore. I did self-introduction to the beautiful Korean girl. I prepared at least two questions to her in advance, but failed to ask her because of my shyness. I confessed this fact to other members after the two guests were gone.

 The 16-year-old girl said “I had a lot of talk with her.” “I talked about IU.”
“Really, IU is the very topic that I just wanted to ask her.”
She said she likes IU, and I said, “Me too.” “I am now practicing a song called LUCKY. IU was a first singer for me to sing LUCKY. I instantly fell in love with the song. I looked for an original song called LUCKY, and found it. I knew that Jason Mraz sings this song. She didn’t know of LUCKY, but I met a fan of IU for the first time in Japan. I became a little happy tonight.

She kept speaking about her topics shared with the Korean girl. The last topic that the young girl picked up was Gangnam Style. What a surprise! This vocabulary is the very words that I had searched for in English dictionary, how silly! on last Sunday. On the net I knew this is a song by PHY. A little fat Korean man with sunglasses is dancing a queer dance. “PHY!” a little girl beside me cried. She must have known PHY, she is just two years old though. She has been to Korea with her mother several weeks ago.

 

I read a good bye message of a professor on the Newsletter of English Education Center of Ehime University.  He advised to us, “ Follow your dreams, never give up and get your Gangnam Style on!”

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